


if hard work pays off, show me a rich donkey

by waspfactor



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Angst, Character Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:56:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28222035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waspfactor/pseuds/waspfactor
Summary: isogai is tired
Comments: 23
Kudos: 33





	if hard work pays off, show me a rich donkey

**Author's Note:**

> isogai angst time hell yea babey he is VERY bitter in this! idk i just like the idea of isogai being resentful.
> 
> time to project my chronic fatigue onto a character!!!! HELL YEA BABEY!!!!
> 
> would it be a waspfactor fic if i didn't give u a song to go along with it- this time it's [little dark age](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtL5oMyBHPs) (wow not vocaloid r u proud of me)

Isogai is tired. In almost every sense of the word.

He sleeps very rarely, often completing schoolwork in the moonlight’s glow. He wears uniforms more than casual clothes, more than pyjamas. He accustomed to the uncomfortable feeling of sleeping in jeans that are two sizes too small. It's tiring; he's tired.

He is tired of keeping up appearances. E Class, for all their merits, are idiots. Naivety flows through the classroom, trickling down from their teacher. They’re from different worlds. Most, if not all of his classmates are from upper society, their names carrying more a weight than their studies. They don’t know the gruelling punishing grind that manual labour brings and they likely never will. They don’t know what the general public’s like, how _exhausting_ it is to put on a smile and a voice. They know Isogai does and they think its funny. Isogai isn’t laughing. They call him prince charming, ikemen, _president_ _poverty_. Back handed compliments, all of them. Isogai is tired.

Maehara, who could be considered his closest ‘friend’, has no sense of direction in life, an arrow that will never be shot from its bow. He talks of the frivolities of life, about what girl he wants to ask out next and when a new film is coming out. Isogai doesn’t know how many times he’s tried to drill the importance of hard work and studying to the other boy but it’s fallen on deaf ears each time. The gap between them is like a canyon, impossible to bridge or jump and ever-expanding as each day passes. Isogai wouldn’t trust Maehara to look after a bot of boiling water. He is tired cleaning up Maehara’s mess.

He is tired of falling short. He used to be one of the smartest in E Class and now he is not. Akabane, a new addition to the class, has wrenched that spot away from him. Akabane doesn’t even show up for lessons, doesn’t wear the school uniform, doesn’t _care._ When he does care, academics come naturally to him, easily breezing past Isogai to number one in the class. His family is filthy rich, to the point where that’s the main thing associated with the Akabane name. Isogai is tired of labouring away while people like Akabane, Nakamura, Kanzaki glide by.

He is tired of the school he attends, with the man who sits at the top, head clouded by delusions of grandeur and revenge. He is but a fool in a nice, clean suit, dressed up in big words and misguided philosophies. He’s in need of serious help. His son is no better, akin to Atlas holding the world on his back as he carries his father’s expectations and then some. Judging by the bags under his eyes, he works as hard as Isogai, but he allows his perfect student mask to slip more often that not, buying into his father’s twisted ideology. He’s as venomous as a snake and as crafty as one too. Isogai is tired of his meddling, the way his eyes glint in the light when he catches him working again. They might be similar, but Asano is _rich_ and Isogai is _not._ Isogai’s starting to see a pattern.

Asano challenges E Class to a game of pole toppling and Isogai sees his way out. In line with the persona he’s so carefully constructed, he offers himself as a martyr, a sacrificial lamb to the metaphorically slaughter. This school is too expensive and the fees he struggles to pay are not worth it to put up with _these_ sorts of people. But Maehara comes along, waving his hands around with the idea of _teamwork_ and _co-operation._ It makes Isogai gag, the way the class gets riled up. A disgusting display of camaraderie. He is not a part of team, never has been, never wants to be. But that goes against the rules he’s set-in place for himself so, again, he keeps his mouth shut, wearing his oh-so-perfect smile. He is tired.

The pole toppling is daunting and Isogai hopes E Class reconsider their decision. Asano plays dirty, calling in the big guns. Isogai doesn’t mind. The odds are stacked against his favour so _surely_ they’ll lose, and he’ll be free of this wretched school, free of the finical burden it brings him, free of the expectations set for him by a madman running on fumes, free of Asano and Nakamura and Kanzaki and Akabane and Maehara and-

He doesn’t even now how he does it but A Class’ pole topples, smacking against the ground with a residual ‘thud’. He struggles to his feet, adrenaline and confusion pumping through his blood stream as his classmates cheer. Maehara looks so relieved, gives Isogai a hug and makes a comment on how he could kiss him. Isogai manages a weak smile, forcing himself not to throw up over the other boy. Freedom slips away through his fingers like dust and a part of him mourns. Nothing ever goes his way so really, why did he think this would be different. He is tired of the universe constantly pulling one over him.

Isogai goes home that day, body aching as he stifles a yawn. His mother, illness aging her beyond her years, tells him to go to bed, eyes brimming with concern. He declines, shaking his head. He might be tired but it’s not the sort of tiredness that can be solved by sleep.

Besides, he has work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](https://wasp-factor.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/waspfactor) :))
> 
> head empty, only cold, calculating and BITTER isogai for the day

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Pumped Up Kicks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28390872) by [killj0yx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/killj0yx/pseuds/killj0yx)




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